Magazine

Why the Bold New Look

October 05, 2003

A redesign is a milestone in the life of any magazine. Our last redesign came 20 years ago in a seminal, even radical, makeover created by B. Martin Pedersen. His design, in particular our bold cover with its distinctive red, white, and blue logo, was remarkably successful -- and widely imitated by magazines around the world. We've updated that design a number of times in the intervening years as we expanded our coverage and added new features.

We decided about a year ago that it was time for another complete redesign of the magazine. With BusinessWeek's art director, Malcolm Frouman, leading the way, our senior editorial team and our art, photo, and production staffs brainstormed numerous approaches. The goal for all of us was to make the magazine bolder, more contemporary, and more user-friendly.

We are fortunate to be working with two fine designers, Maryjane Fahey and David O'Connor of the FaheyOConnor firm in New York. Their new concept for BusinessWeek places a greater emphasis on typography, photography, illustration, and more accessible informational graphics to create a dramatic, sleek look.

To get from concept to printed page, you can't just flip a switch. For the past nine months, Frouman and his team have been working with Fahey and O'Connor to fine-tune BusinessWeek's formats section by section. In preparation for the launch, our art department has tested each week's issue for the past month in the new format, comparing the old look and the new, page by page.

"While we hope to surprise our readers with a powerful new design, they will still find BusinessWeek engaging and accessible," says Frouman. "The covers will be more dynamic, the photography more compelling, and the informational graphics more useful than ever. We've taken a very good magazine and made it even better."

EASIER TO FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR

As you look through this week's issue, you'll also see an expanded Up Front section and the return of the Personal Business moniker in the back -- a name and line of coverage BusinessWeek pioneered more than 50 years ago. It's easier to find what you're looking for, too, with page numbers for all the stories we highlight on our covers, a streamlined contents page, plus interior tables of contents in News: Analysis & Commentary and Personal Business, and a new weekly navigation guide for BusinessWeek Online.

We have introduced new typefaces throughout the magazine. Headlines are in Benton Gothic and Fenway Display, a new typeface created expressly for BusinessWeek by type designer Matthew Carter. For the body text of stories, we are using Fenway Roman, also designed by Carter. And we've even increased the type size for greater legibility.

The redesign comes at a significant moment for BusinessWeek: We are now entering our 75th anniversary year, which we will celebrate next September. So it's a good time to take a fresh look at the best-selling business magazine in the world.

We hope you like the new design as much as we do. Bon Voyage! By Stephen B. Shepard, Editor-in-Chief